Knitting In Public

Today is the start of the Winter Olympics, and as the Olympic flame is lit, it also signals the beginning of the 2010 Knitting Olympics.

Four years ago, the Yarn Harlot had a brilliant/crazy idea to have the Knitting Olympics, held concurrently with the Winter Olympics. I was nutty enough to give it a try, and was able to earn the Gold Medal for my efforts (see sidebar for my medal). There were lots of people who wanted her to do it again for the Summer Olympics two years later, but for a lot of reasons, she declined. As the 2010 Winter Olympics approached, she mentioned doing the Knitting Olympics again, but wasn’t quite sure if she was going to do it. In the meantime, over at Ravelry, folks jumped on the idea/bandwagon and made the Ravelympics - a similar idea to the Knitting Olympics. (Slightly different rules, etc., but the same in spirit.) Just a short time ago, the Harlot decided that she would again participate and loosely “run” the Knitting Olympics. YAY! Somehow, it did not seem the same without the Harlot at the helm.

This time, I am really stretching it - and substantially increasing the liklihood of failure - by deciding to knit “Feather Duster” by Susan Pierce Lawrence.

This is listed as a scarf, although the dimensions and the photo look more like a (small) shawl. It uses a single skein of ShibuiKnits Silk Cloud (25 g., 330 yds). While it is literally thousands of stitches, 330 yards seemed a do-able task. (Am I crazy?) I have the entire length of the Winter Olympics, from the lighting to the extinguishing of the Olympic flame, to finish my Feather Duster. 16 days - which includes three weekends. (We won’t mention that tax prep has to occur during this period, too. Not to mention working full time.) You’ll be among the first to know if I succeed and again come “home” with the gold. There is one caveat, however — I am doubting that this will be large enough for me, so my commitment (my Olympic goal) is to complete the pattern as written, using just the one skein of Silk Cloud. I will likely add extra repeats to the pattern, with additional yarn, but that will occur after the Olympics and the completion of the entire shawl will not be required to win the gold. As it is, I think I’ve figured (if my math is correct) that it will be over 14,000 stitches to complete the pattern as presented. Unfortunately, this means I’m more likely to be watching my pattern than the action of the Olympic athletes, but I’ll be listening to the commentary with an occasional glimpse at the TV. So the challenge is set: Game On!

So, where’s the knitting on this knitting blog?!?!?

Yes, despite trips and visits and all, I have been knitting along. In fact, I’ve been doing some of that knitting while Dave has been driving! Not much has been finished, but that’s me (and a lot of knitters) - always running off to start a new project.

During this trip I started this child’s cardigan (size 3-4)

I have modified the pattern to be seamless, but didn’t think through it entirely and made a few mistakes that I would do differently if I make this cardigan seamlessly again. It also has sewn-on buttonbands which are one of my least favorite things to do. I have managed to sew one side on and it wasn’t quite the problem I thought it was going to be. I believe this has much to do with the pattern being written as completed x number of rows for all parts - never inches/cm. I still have to sew on the other buttonband and finish the other sleeve. I also found some great buttons for this!

The bubbles cardigan was purchased as a kit from KnitPicks. Molly bought the boys colorway and I bought the girls colorway (and then bought the boys as well, but haven’t started work on it yet). This was really fun to work the yoke (knitted top down) but the kit yardage is very tight, so I’m holding my breath that I’ll manage to not run out. The kit allows for a matching hat, so I can always fudge on the hat colors if needed.

I fell in love with this pattern and bought the yarn called for in the colors shown (sweetpea and teal).  The yarn turned out to be more of an aran weight (a little heavier than worsted), and the sweater just flew off the needles. Unfortunately, these colors are really hard to photograph

and come out looking more like a weird yellow and military blue :( 

I’ve got all the pieces knitted and only have the assembly and neckline left to do, however I’m having trouble finding buttons to work. All the current teal buttons are far more green than blue, and will not work at all. I called Webs to see if they sell the buttons shown on the pattern photo, but apparently they no longer carry those buttons, and everything they have that is “teal” is more green than blue. :(  So this languishes in my WIP pile.

I was so enthused by the pattern, however, that I bought some yarn from KnitPicks to make a second cardigan. This photo isn’t the greatest, either, as the colors are a little duller than in person. The light green really is a “silver sage.” This version is also knit but not assembled, however I did find buttons I like to complete the outfit.

I did finish some items in time for the county and state fairs - and managed to bring home some ribbons

Scottish Fleet, Springy Ring, and Spiral mittens. (Another pair of Springy Ring and Spiral mittens still OTN, waiting for thumbs…)

A lovely “vintage” baby sweater - and I found the perfect buttons! (The photo colors are off, but the buttons really are a close match.) I didn’t get this into the state fair as they have funny cutoffs for baby things, so I am working on a hat of my “own” design and will add booties to make a 3-piece ensemble for next year’s fair.

I’ve been knitting lots of squares for the MKG charity project, including the sample for the December challenge pattern:

and I finished a full crib afghan - remember this?

I made the bottom sections shorter than called for as I apparently was no where near what gauge was supposed to be, and it was getting waaaay too long. Fairly easy pattern and “brainless” knitting, but garter sure gets boring!

I’ve also recently been working on using up stash, and have made two of these and only have the buttons left to purchase and apply. Unfortunately no completion photos, only one “in progress” photo:

obviously taken quite a long time ago! These sweaters were a little funky, but once I made one it was easy. Very quick knit!

Shawn is also (hopefully soon) to be the recipient of another pair of twined mittens:

This one is now completed (except for thumb) and the 2nd one has been started. Hopefully she will have these long before spring! :p

I still have quite a few projects “resting” in my WIP pile and hope to get up the drive to finish those. In the meantime, I’m sure I’ll be starting even more projects! So, what’s on your needles?

This fall we were again fortunate enough to visit our friends, Tom & Michelle at their lovely home on Lake Superior. We anticipated a jaunt into Canada, so I even got a passport so I’d be ready!

We planned a stop in Duluth at Yarn Harbor where I bought a couple of patterns and two balls of Mini Mochi to make these mittens (although I think I’ve changed my mind on using them for this pattern). While I was in the shop, I inquired about participating in their upcoming mitten-of-the-month which starts in January. I was assured that I could manage to do it ‘long distance’ and I’m looking forward to giving it a try.

We encountered some road construction along the way

The weather was hazy and the view was different than we had seen before

It’s always fun to go through the tunnel

As we continued along the lakeshore, we saw large numbers of trees that had been blown over in some kind of storm. It was amazing to see so much damage.

We arrived safely and enjoyed our visit, as usual! Dave & Michelle went to Canada and bought some cheese (I stayed behind with a splitting headache - so much for getting my passport!)

Tom was playing for a radio fundraiser, and when Dave & Michelle returned from Canada, we decided to head to town to hear him play. Unfortunately, he was finished before we arrived - we passed him on the road and tried to chase him down. Thanks to daughter Angie calling OnStar from Georgia, she was able to tell Tom that we were those crazy folks in the car behind him! We decided to stop at Naniboujou - a lodge/restaurant/retreat where Shawn was supposed to go that weekend (but had to cancel). I had never seen it (even though we have driven by it), and it was quite unusual! I had a wonderful salad with Maple Vinigrette dressing (mmmmmm! I tried to get some to take home, but they do not offer it for sale. ) Here’s the restaurant/dining room:

What a wild paint job!

Here is the beautiful and comfy-looking ‘library’/meeting room:

Best of all: the grounds were absolutely breathtaking

The photo really doesn’t do it justice (and yes, that is Lake Superior)

We were on our way home before you knew it - and the ride home was even more foggy/hazy than the ride up (no there’s nothing wrong with the photo - it looked just like this)

Here’s a poor photo of the kind of damage we saw to the trees (I kept trying to get photos and all I managed was blurry blobs)

And of course, our sign that we’ve returned to “real life” and Dave’s favorite part of the trip:

So many knitting groups…so little time! A few months ago, another group of knitting friends started to meet on Thursdays. However, finding a public location that is comfortable to sit for a couple of hours and allows us to hear each other, enjoy a beverage and knit together isn’t as easy as it sounds. Our first meeting was at a local establishment called “Pardon My French”. We discovered that it was not the place to try to knit in a group. The establishment was knitter-friendly, but it is large and loud! After spending our knitting time, I meandered over to the pastry area, and found several goodies to bring home and share with everybody I left slaving away working while I went and played knitted.

I tried to choose a variety of sweets to sample. The bottom piece is sort of a shortcake cookie with fruit on top. Very much like the “fruit pizza” that Ben H. made for us once while visiting the Gaspars. The chocolate - of course - was just a rich chocolate cake-type treat, and the last was a passion fruit cake (if I remember correctly). Trying to cut these into 5 pieces was a challenge (I decided to make 6 pieces and if anyone really liked one, they could have the extra piece).

Here’s another photo without the flash, so you can see the lovely glazed shine…

Mmmmm!

Dave & Chris went to British Columbia for a conference, and I just had to share these photos they took while sitting in the expensive roadster of one of the attendees.

It sure looks like they were having fun!

Dave & I have decided to try to take a weekend every month or two and take a short roadtrip - just to get away. We’ve really only had 2 or 3 true “vacations” in 30 years, and now that we have people in the office to ‘hold down the fort’ while we’re away, we’re hoping to have a few weekends off. We’re also starting to plan a road trip vacation once a year, to various parts of the country. We’ll plan on stopping to see relatives in the area when we can - and first up will be California, of course!

In the meantime, we took our first weekend off, and headed to …. Iowa! Dave heard of a casino/hotel there and thought it might be nice. I checked my resources to find yarn shops along the way …. win-win! We stopped in Owatonna at a small yarn shop that was in a converted porch area of a home. For the size of the place, I was amazed at the amount of yarn she had. After a quick purchase, it was back on the highway again. (The other yarn shop on the list, in Ames, was apparently out of business. ) It was an easy drive to get there (although rather boring). In addition to Iowa cornfields, there are now Iowa wind farms!

We were surprised at how many we saw. They are enormous machines, and didn’t appear to be moving very fast - making me wonder how much energy they produce (or how much distance changes your perspective).

After a few hours in the car, we arrived in the middle of nowhere at our hotel/casino:

Nice enough accommodations, and a pretty good deal on the room. Other than being a captive audience (anything worth going to was at least an hour in any direction), it was a nice stay. I got a lot done on my knitting (in the car and in the hotel), and I played a slot machine every time I went to dinner. I ended up being up $30!

Dave played in a poker room there and discovered if you played for (whatever amount of time it was - I don’t remember), then they gave you your room for something like $40 instead of the $95 it was supposed to be. There was a bit of confusion at checkout and our deal (which I thought was both Friday and Saturday nights) was apparently only for Friday, but then Dave’s deal from playing poker kicked in for Saturday. All in all, a nice weekend away and very little expense!

We stopped on the way back home to check out the windmill farms. We had heard that they are SO noisy! Many of the wind farms we’d passed were still on Sunday…. I started to wonder if perhaps Iowa had outlawed operating windmills on Sunday so people would get at least one day of rest per week…? As we neared the border, we saw some of the windmills were moving (so much for my theory….!) so we pulled off the road to get some photos and to “listen” to all the noise.

What did we discover? NO NOISE! It was peaceful and quiet - even right next to the power collection. Then we saw this wonderful juxtaposition:

One last stop before we headed home - Dave wanted to check out another casino he had seen, Diamond Jo’s. To me, casinos are pretty much all the same (except for the buffets!) but this one truly was “Iowa”:

When Molly and Chris were here in June to attend the weddings of two of Molly’s friends, we managed to sneak a little “girl time” in and have tea at Lady Elegant’s Tea Room with Auntie Jenny, Molly and me.

There were beautiful pots for hot tea:

white linens, ‘victorian’ surroundings, fancy tea cups:

and really cool “trivet” type things that looked like clear flowers and a ‘tealight’ candle was placed in the center and lit - the teapot went on top and the candle kept the tea warm! (I wonder if that’s how they got the name ‘tealight’ candle?) You can see the edge of it to the left of the teacup here.

I’m not a tea drinker (or coffee, for that matter), but decided to give a try to the fruit punch iced tea (which touted that kids like it). Since mine was a cold tea, I had a carafe all to myself

Very pretty display, and ‘drinkable’ but tea is still “not my thing.”

Molly and Jenny had hot tea, and their teapots came with labels of the tea they had chosen (as well as cool sponge thingies that catch the “drips” from the teapot!) - and Molly found a new favorite tea

To make our tea time complete, Molly ordered soup and Jenny & I ordered the Tea Sampler (mmmm!) which included a couple of sandwiches, a scone with jam or lemon curd, and a couple of desserts. It was delicious and I’d have this again any time! The “display” was much prettier since Jenny & I ordered the same thing (we ordered jam and curd so we could both try some) - here are two views of the same “plate”:

While we were enjoying our tea and food, the server told us they also had a variety of hats that we could use if we desired…. it was a bit like playing “dress up” when you were a kid! I was a bit disappointed that they weren’t the big, floppy “victorian” kind of hats, but rather hats from the 50’s or 60’s era - the type that I had seen on my mother or grandmother. I also discovered that Jenny & I must have rather large heads, as the hats tended to sit on top of our head instead of wearing them as I think they were intended.

Molly, of course, looked wonderful in any of the hats we forced her to she tried on.

Silly stuff, but we had a great time.

Today is World Wide Knitting In Public Day!

I’m not quite sure, but I think this used to be a single day (hence the name), but has now become a two-day, weekend thing. In addition, this year there are two, two-day weekends that are “Knit In Public” days! Apparently it has been the 2nd weekend of June, but that now presents some kind of conflict, so they will be moving it to the 3rd weekend of June - and in this transition year, they will have Knit In Public Day(s) on both weekends.

The end result is…get out there and knit! Show off your projects and encourage others to join in your madness craft!

I’ve been having a severe case of startitis lately. I can’t even say it is the result of needing different “kinds” of knitting (brainless, charted, lace, etc.) but rather that I have found a bunch of patterns and reasons I want to knit them. Lots of baby stuff (for the rash of recent births), mittens because they are small and portable and good for charity knitting for CRYP, afghan squares (and the resultant Baby Moderne afghan) as they are also portable and good for charity (see the MKG blog for info on the year-long afghan project), and lace to satisfy my desire to make something “pretty.”

Pictures? you ask. Ummm. Not yet. Too busy knitting and working. Also, DD & hubby are here from California and we are trying to spend extra time with them. Pictures will be posted “soon.” (If I can convince DD to share the photos from our “tea” with Jenny, I’ll have some other fun photos to post as well. If you know her, put some pressure on to share the photos!)

In the meantime, I’ll be Knitting In Public this weekend and next weekend!

This is the sight that greeted me from the deck this morning:

No joke, here - except on those of us that live in Minnesota!

I have been bitten by the afghan square bug.

The Knitters’ Guild has begun a year-long service project to knit 8″ x 8″ squares for afghans, to be sewn together at the January, 2010 meeting and given to three charities chosen. You can read all about it on the Guild website or on the new Guild Community Service Blog. I wrote about this awhile ago, and that I’ve been involved in the service committee to come up with the idea and (for now) I’m in charge of the blog.

I wanted to be sure the project started with a bang, and that at least *some* squares were collected right away. Hopefully that would inspire others to contribute.

I have been working mostly with just two skeins of yarn, and I’m amazed at the number of squares I’ve produced out of just those two skeins, and I still have some left!

Here are the squares I submitted today. The patterns are all on the Guild blog (in case anyone wants to knit a few and contribute to the project).

This is the 2 x 2 stripes. (You’ll be seeing more of these two yarns.)

This is “Parquet Squares” - and the start of my skein of red and skein of white which is lasting forever.

This was a fun pattern to start and I have some ideas to make several more. One of the squares submitted at the Guild meeting today was two shades of brown and all I could think of was chocolate! (Go check out the community service blog - I know it’s not the same as “in person” but perhaps you’ll see what I mean.)

This is the “Heart Square”  Easy to do, of course, except that the heart is duplicate stitch. I must admit this is my first successful duplicate stitch attempt.

This is Moss Lace Diamonds. Listed as “challenging” but was a pretty easy knit.

Lastly, I tried my hand at shadow knitting for the first time. I also decided that I could get some variety in the squares by using dishcloth patterns - and that is what this is, modified slightly to get the correct size. Speaking of size, I discovered that nearly all my squares were too large, once they were washed! I’ll have to watch that on future squares for the project. In addition, I discovered first-hand the truth of the caution that acrylic yarn doesn’t really block at all - it just goes back to what it was before blocking!

This isn’t the best photo - as I was walking around and glancing over at the drying/”blocking” squares, there were certain angles where this looked like a plain, red and white striped square. The magic, of course, is when it’s viewed at an angle:

The center square becomes white, and there is a solid red heart in the middle! (This picture is also not as intense as some of the angles at which I saw it last night - but I was in a hurry for photos and this was “close enough”.) I’d also like to make a few more of these in different color combos. Since this also grew quite a bit, I would actually make the pattern as listed instead of adding stitches and rows I thought I needed to make it the correct size.

I think all of these squares were finished in just two evenings (each). Not a long time commitment, and I know I’m not the fastest knitter around. I’m sure others could finish these in much less time. I just finished posting the March patterns on the Guild blog, and I’ve already finished knitting the “Horizontal Chain”:

I decided to wait to submit this one, since it is a March pattern. (I didn’t want to confuse anyone!)

Of course, I’ve also finished the “Twining Trees” square that will be for July, I believe.

We’ll see how long this fascination with squares will continue…. I’d like to make some squares specifically for baby afghans, too (one of the charities is Bundles of Love).

Inbetween squares, I’ve been working on the Anemoi mittens (Mary & I are attempting to finish our mittens started over 2 years ago) - I’ve completely started over as I originally used gray and black yarns and was soooo uninspired. I’ve changed to black and aqua, and I’m much happier. I’ve also started work on the Lillyfield mittens, using lace weight yarn, doubled. I bought this yarn for last year’s Sock Madness, but was bumped from competition before I got to the socks requiring the lace weight. So far, I’m happy with the results. I’ll post photos of both once I get a little more done on the hand. Right now, I barely have more than the cuff - not too exciting for blogging!

I’m also slogging away on a few other projects, but the squares and the mittens are definitely getting most of my attention. I’m off now to spend time knitting!